As a graduate, I sometimes pop in to Cnet when I have a few minutes, and
then usually don't bother posting. This is my kind of post and the kind
I feel there should be more of! Great topic Rebecca.

I am happy to see America take a stance on Syria as there are horrible
things happening there. That being said, I feel that missile strikes
were not the place to start. If we really cared about Syrian children
and other innocent citizens, we would start by letting them come to our
country as refugees. If we had allowed more refugees to come here and
escape the horrors of their country's civil war, then they wouldn't have
been there to be gassed in the first place. We also would have
increased monetary aid to Syria and Syrian refugees, rather that cut it.
For example, did you know that Trump has cut aid that was previously
spent to ensure that Syrian women were able to deliver their babies in
safe locations?

Let's not kid ourselves, Trump is a narcissist. The strikes in Syria
were about him looking like the Big Man calling the shots. This was a
wag-the-dog move to distract us from the fact that he isn't really doing
anything except spend tax payer money to take trips to Maralago. If he
stayed in Washington where he belonged and had his wife and son move
there too, we would have money to pay for US AID, public TV/radio (those
who know me previously will know that I am an avid NPR listener), the
arts, our national park system, Meals on Wheals, and other programs that
have been or are on the chopping block.

While I applaud action taken to put a stop to atrocities in any country,
I don't know that I support missile strikes, especially without
consulting Congress first. The thought of our current president being
in charge of "the button" has literally caused me to lose
sleep. I try to assuage my anxiety by reminding myself that we have
checks and balances in place that are supposed to protect us. Let's
hope they work!

I haven't been on CollegeNET very often over the last year, but with all
the crazy news over the last week, I thought it might be fun to check
in. I'm disappointed to find very few topics of substance.

My sign said, "Women hold up half the sky." This is a Chinese
Proverb and inspired the book and documentary "Half the Sky,"
by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It is one of my favorites and I
highly recommend it!

I keep hearing the argument that a woman shouldn't be president because
of their menstrual cycle. The idea is that changes in hormones during a
woman's monthly cycle would cause her to be so unstable that she might
start a war.

First off, I feel like calling him 'unpatriotic' for his peaceful
protest is ludicrous. Protesting and make a stand for something you
believe in is one of the most American activities there is and our right
to do this is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. I do not see this
action as being un-American or unpatriotic.

Second, Jackie Robinson also made a similar protest stating, "I
cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know
that I am a black man in a white world."
I think we should be asking ourselves why minority citizens continue
to feel like outcasts in our society instead of questioning their patriotism.

Last, I wish that instead of questioning patriotism, we were talking
more about the issues that he raised. Good for him for trying to start
a conversation. Unfortunately, the greater American society is not
ready to face the facts of racial inequality in our country. Until we
do, we will continue to maintain the status quo.

There was a recent article in the New York Post about kids becoming
addicted to video games:

We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of
digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they
affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls
executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly
the same way that cocaine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that
it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most
involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex.

The article questions how much time children should be spending on video
gaming systems while acknowledging that children need exposure to
navigate an increasingly digitized world. The American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) estimates that the average 8-10 year old spends 8 hours
per day in front of screens and teens spend 11 hours per day. The
recommendation of the AAP is no screen time for children under two and
only 1-2 hours for children over that time.